Exceeding Expectations

Brooke Nadolny, a soon to be senior at L’Anse Creuse High School, is like most 17-year-old girls, sporting her Harry Styles concert t-shirt and professing her love for her dogs Daryl and Lacy. But there’s something else about her: she just keeps hitting home runs. Nadolny has hit so many home runs that she is breaking state records.

Brooke was recruited to play softball at just four years old after former coach Doug DeCeuninck saw her playing catch on the sidelines.

“You knew she was gonna be good, how good was going to be up to her,” said DeCeuninck. “She even surpassed my expectations!”

By the time she was five, she was swinging for the fences with a team of girls up to twice her age. One of those girls was her big sister Kaitlyn. “I looked up to her,” explained Brooke. “I loved it from the beginning.”

As a freshman she crushed six home runs, a great start to her high school career. The very next year she kicked things up a notch and sent 22 balls sailing, breaking the season homerun record for Michigan. Then during her junior year, she broke her own record, blasting 26 home runs. If you are counting, that is a total of 54 home runs in three years. The high school career record in Michigan is 55, which means she is only one away from tying the record and two away from beating it.

When asked what her goal is for next year, she repeated the same modest, team-player mentality she has carried throughout the years:

“I’m not going to try and hit home runs.” Brooke continued, “That has to be my mindset. Focus on base hits and when they come, they’ll come.”

We are all rooting for her in the 2019 season and have faith she will knock out of the park not only a few balls, but the the record too.